If there’s one thing Oklahoma needs, it’s more visual reminders about the almighty God and the divine influence he has on our society and culture. Seriously, you can’t find that stuff anywhere ever since Obama banned it in 2008.

Fortunately, some astute, fair-minded, not-in-any-way pandering Oklahoma lawmakers have noticed this problem and offered a solution to fix it.

Via NewsOK.com:

Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall wants the national motto, “In God We Trust” to be displayed prominently in all state buildings.

American Atheists, which advocates for the separation of church and government, criticized the proposal, saying it would be exclusionary to people with diverse religious beliefs.

House Bill 3817 would require the Office of Management and Enterprise Services to display “In God We Trust” in a prominent place in all state buildings, except for those owned by school districts.

That’s nice and everything, but shouldn’t the messaging be on brand and say “In God We Trust… Imagine That!”

Either way, I think this is a swell idea. First of all, the slogan is already printed on our money. If we can trust God with that, we can surely trust him with blessing our government.

Second, maybe placing these hallowed words in state buildings will inspire God to wave his magic wand and give us new lawmakers who actually care about real, important issues facing the state, and not just pandering to the theocratic Evangelicals who elect them.

Here’s more:

We were happy to welcome Amy Blackburn – Oklahoma’s new Director of State Branding – to our Bricktown Digital Media Studios for a recent episode of The Lost Ogle Show!

We talked all about Oklahoma’s new brand and marketing campaign, including how and why it was selected, the criticism it’s received on social media and in the press, and what in the world Canadians had to do with it. We also talked about the local ad world, the state meal and played a game of This Week In Lost Ogle History.

Check it out:

You can find out more about the new Oklahoma branding campaign at branding.ok.gov and you can buy your Oklahoma merch at shoptravelok.com. You can follow Amy on Twitter at @_amyblackburn. As always, you can subscribe to The Lost Ogle Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I Heart, Stitcher, etc. Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.

We recently welcomed Apollo Woods of OKC Black Eats to The Lost Ogle Bricktown Digital Media studios for a recording of Free Queso Podcast!

Apollo’s passion is working with black chefs and restaurateurs and boosting their visibility. There’s always hype for every new joint that opens up in Midtown, but he wants to take that focus to places that you may not see from your typical Instagram foodie influencers.

February is Black History Month, and OKC Black Eats has a series of OKC Black Restaurant Weeks to coincide with it. We also swap our favorite ways to reheat leftovers, so there’s still discussion for the singles out there. To cap things off, Judie brought in one of those Whitman’s chocolate samplers that you see at Walgreen’s this time of year, and we blind-tasted our way through the box and tried to guess the flavors.

Make sure to follow OKC Black Eats on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to Free Queso on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and probably most of the other places. If you like what you hear, leave us a nice comment and a 5* rating, and follow us on the social meeds at @freequesopod on Twitter and @freequesopod on Instagram.

Over the weekend, NBA stars gathered in Chicago for another All-Star weekend extravaganza. The weekend featured a revamped format, controversial dunk contest, and apparently questions about OKC’s status as a All-Star City.

Via The Oklahoman:

Trae Young was asked Saturday if he’d like to see the NBA All-Star game in Oklahoma City some day.

“It’d be super fun to get an All-Star game out in OKC,” the Hawks guard and former Sooner said. “Being able to go back home and play in front of them would be fun. I think they gotta get maybe one or two more hotels to be able to get it going.”

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt tweeted that Young was “spot-on.”

“I get this question from time to time,” Holt tweeted. “NBA requires 6,000 rooms near the arena and wants them to be four-star. Even with (the) Omni we’re just not anywhere near that.”

Russell Westbrook was asked the same question during media day, and he also gave the hotel response. As a result, it wouldn’t shock me if the city decides to fund a MAPS 4 All-Stars that subsidizes a bunch of full service hotels and strip clubs  just to attract an NBA All-Star Game for one year. That being said, I feel like we need to make some other improvements first to accommodate all the athletes, fans, journalists, and hanger-ons that come with hosting an event of this scale…

Hotel Ghostbusters

Happy Friday everyone, let’s talk about the death penalty in Oklahoma. Sure, there are better ways to start this article; but it would be irresponsible for me to rehash old jokes that didn’t work and inject them into the site. Speaking of that…

Via KOCO.com:

State officials announced Thursday morning that Oklahoma has found a reliable supply of drugs to resume executions by lethal injection.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General Mike Hunter, Department of Corrections Director Scott Crow and other state officials made the announcement at a news conference at 11:30 a.m.

According to the attorney general’s office, the state will use an updated version of the previous protocol that includes recommendations by the 2016 multicounty grand jury. The three drugs that will continue to be used are midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Let me start by saying the death penalty is a complicated, problematic issue despite the side you stand on. Any carte blanche response to this can be misguided because they don’t represent all the factors at play.

But Oklahoma in particular has a terrible reputation for the state-murder business. In 2014 and 2015, two botched executions put Oklahoma in the worst limelight imaginable. And yet, despite all this, the state is going to push ahead with the same drugs as before.

But sure, I bet your death drugs are sure to work this time. Say what you will about Oklahoma, their blind optimism is inspiring.

Here’s more: